Lost and Found
"Lost and Found" is the very first episode of When Calls the Heart. Plot In 1910 a young school teacher, Elizabeth Thatcher, is traveling by stage coach to Coal Valley where she has accepted a teaching position. Three armed men or horses come towards the stage coach and rob Elizabeth. She looks around at her cases and her remaining clothes that are now scattered in ruin on the ground beside the road, she sits on the cases clearly still in shock at the situation. Elizabeth finally manages to get to Coal Valley having been 'rescued' by a man with a horse and cart. After sitting up and attempting to make herself look presentable she makes her way over to Yost's Mercantile; there she meets Abigail Stanton, Cat Montgomery and Florence Blakely. Florence notes that they expected Elizabeth two days ago and she explains what happened with the stage coach, after making sure that Elizabeth is okay Abigail and the other mothers take her over to the saloon to talk about the teaching post. Abigail explains that the childrens education is one of the few things the Pacific Northwest Mining Company doesn't own as the mothers took charge and started their own school; however the church was burned down and along with it the school room so now the classes are being held in the saloon. This shocks Elizabeth but the mothers go on to say they had requested a mature teacher who would be able to cope with life in Coal Valley. They explain that three months ago there was a mining accident that caused the deaths of forty seven of the miners, leaving many of the children fatherless and many of the women widowed. Florence goes as far as to say they don't need a 'princess' and that she should just go home; Cat tries to explain that the mothers are paying the salary and whoever they employ wont just be teaching their children academic subjects, they will be fighting for the childrens future. Elizabeth asks the mothers for a chance to prove herself to them and as it is going to take the stagecoach a week to return they agree to give her a short try, they tell her she can stay in the teacherage. Elizabeth, who has never lived on her own, has some trouble settling in to her new home. At first she has trouble lighting the stove, and gets soot all over her dress. She washes her dress and hangs it up to dry near the now properly-lit stove, but the dress's sleeve falls into the stove. Distracted by howling from outside, she does not notice this; instead, she barricades the door so the animals can't get in, curls up on the bed, and holds a spoon as a weapon. Her dress catches fire, causing the rest of the house to go up in flames, Elizabeth stands outside the burning house in a shawl, trying not to cry. Elizabeth is taken in by Abigail Stanton overnight and Abigail also lent her some clothes to wear. when Abigail wakes up Elizabeth is already up and dressed. She apologizes to Abigail for what happened and offers to pay the town for the teacherage. Abigail reassures her that its okay and that it was an old building; she goes on to say that its hard to come to a new place and that she and her husband Noah were young when they moved to Coal Valley with their son Peter, it took them time to find their footing but they did and so will Elizabeth in time. Elizabeth stands on at the door of the saloon giving herself a pep-talk as she watches the mothers and children walk down the road towards her. As the children walk past her in to the school the mothers bombard her with statements and questions that she tries to answer nervously. Cat tells the other mothers to give Miss Thatcher some breathing room and that they should feel blessed that she traveled there to teach their children. Elizabeth quotes Euripides to the mothers in an attempt to show them that she will do her best but the quote is lost on the mothers making Elizabeth visually embarrassed, she stops trying and goes in to the classroom to teach closing the door behind her. With all the children seated Elizabeth tries to set some class rules including paying attention, raising their hand if they would like to speak and not speaking while she is speaking; while she is telling the children these rules a whistle goes off and many of the children jump up and run out of the saloon down the street. Elizabeth tries to get the children to remain in their seats but they ignore her, she warns that any child that leaves the class with have a note sent home to their parents. A young student raises her had and calls Miss Thatcher, she introduces herself as Rachel and explains that Elizabeth shouldn't try to stop the students as the whistle is from the mine and it means that they have dug up more of the miners that were lost in the accident. Elizabeth tells the remaining students to follow her and they all go out to the mine together. One of the miners addresses the crowd saying that they have found the last of the miners who were killed in the accident but that they also found a wooden plank with the words 'Forgive me, Pa.' Mr. Henry Gowen, the miners boss, takes the plank saying that he will keep it safe until he decides what to do with it. Mr. Palmer, one of the miners, says that they should decide what to do with it as it was a miner who spent his last time writing the message to his family. when Mr. Gowen ignores him and gets in his car to go back to his office Mr. Palmer stands in his way. After a few minutes of fighting back and forth about Mr. Palmer and the miners who had joined him in front of the car not moving until they are given the plank a Mountaineer comes up on his horse; he comes up with the solution of having all the widows submitting a sample of their husbands handwriting to compare against the writing on the plank. He tells Mr. Gowen that three days should be enough time and then introduces himself as the new constable of Coal Valley, Jack Thornton. The next morning Elizabeth is writing up her lesson on the blackboard when Jack walks past, Elizabeth introduces herself, he explains that he is staying in a room in the saloon until he can find something permanent and they begin talking about Coal Valley. Elizabeth expresses her surprise at Coal Valley needing a full time Mountie, Jack agrees with her telling her his original posting was Cape Fullerton but that it was changed suddenly. Elizabeth tells him it will be quieter in Coal Valley than it would be in a busy shipping port like Cape Fullerton; Jack is surprised that she knows where it is, she tells him that her father has done business there for years and tells him that her father is William Thatcher. Upon realizing who her father is Jack states that he was reassigned to Coal Valley at the request of a powerful man and that Elizabeth is now the reason he 'has to eat coal dust' indefinitely because he was assigned to protect the 'princess in a town she had who had no business coming to.' Elizabeth tells him he's off base and that even if her father did get him sent here she doesn't need him to protect her. Jack tells her she wont last a month in a town like this, she tells him shes a Thatcher and that they don't run from challenges. After Jack leaves he heads over to the store and sends a telegram to is superiors strongly requesting to be transferred; while he is there he finds a telegram in the bin from Mr. Gowen to the Randall Pope, President of the Pacific Northwest Mining Company, saying that the 'questions of negligence or safety violations liberty has been responsibly averted' and that the matter was resolved, this sparks Jacks interest he slips the telegram in to his pocket and leaves. In Mr. Gowens office the widows are coming in with samples of their late husbands handwriting, all of them claiming that the plank must be theirs for a variety of reasons. Mrs Crocker believes because she and her children were asleep when he left for the mine that day it was his goodbye to her and the children; Cat believes it's her husbands because he would always leave her notes around the house so it makes sense he would leave her a note. Elizabeth is walking down main street towards the saloon when she sees Jack chopping through the gap between the buildings. She watches him for a while before walking away and fanning herself with a bit of paper. In the classroom Elizabeth attempts to teach the children English but none of the children are paying attention; realizing that she is getting nowhere Elizabeth tries to inspire the students by telling them she is teaching them so that they can grow up to be anything that want to be. While she is telling them this two of the boys begin to argue over who the plank belongs to, the fight becomes physical and when Miss Thatcher tries to break it up she ends up getting punched in the face. That evening after seeing the black eye that Elizabeth has Abigail tells her she should never get between two coal boys in a fight,she also asks Elizabeth to set the table for three. While they set up for dinner Elizabeth expresses that she wants to get the children interested in their lessons, Abigail suggests adding levity to the lessons. There is a knock at the door, Elizabeth answers it to see Jack. He notes her bruise and reluctantly invites him in after he asks if her bags are packed. After the meal Jack admires a painting that's on Abigail's wall, Elizabeth realizes from his comments that he knows art; he also says that his mother was a teacher and says its an honorable profession. Abigail says the painting was her husbands and that he was a wonderful artist, she then asks Jack how he came to Coal Valley and why he became a Mountie, Elizabeth echos his words about it being an honorable profession. He asks Elizabeth to explain how he came to Coal Valley but she says she doesn't know so he goes on to say his father was a Peace officer and his mother encouraged him to help others so it was in his blood. Abigail says her son wanted to be a Mountie but his father convinced him that being a coal miner was also a noble profession, Jack agrees that it is. Jack brings up Noah and Peter asking specifically about the dangers and the day of the accident, she says she remembers everything and tells of how she ran to the mines. Elizabeth sees him out with a fake thank you for joining them, the moment the door is closed she tells him bringing that day up with Abigail was insensitive, he tells her he put in a transfer request but while hes here he will be investigating the burnt down church and the mine accident which is why he was asking Abigail questions. Elizabeth makes fun of him being able to deduce facts that no one else can, he proves he can by explaining how he knew she was wearing borrowed clothes then he tricks her in to saying she wasn't disappointed about him coming to dinner. Jack goes back to his room and looks over the telegram again before looking at a photo or his parents. The next day Gabe is hanging around outside of school when Jack comes up to him, he says its not a crime to walk around but jack reminds him that being truant from school is. Miss Thatcher comes out and tells Jack that he was running an errand for her, once they go back to the school building she tells he he was excused to go to the bathroom half an hour ago, Gabe runs away from her after saying that nothing matters to him anymore. Almost the entire town comes out for the funeral of the miners that were found. The town has a moment of silence for those they lost, while everyone is there someone is shown to be stealing the plank from Mr. Gowens office. After the funeral Jack questions Mr. Gowen over the missing plank; Mr.Gowen tells he he had better find it, Jack replies that he works for the people of Coal Valley not Mr. Gowen, after the meeting Jack leaves to see Elizabeth attempting to ride a horse, with little success. He then goes off to start an investigation to finding the plank. Elizabeth goes to Cats house to ask about Gabe; to see if she could figure out how to help him, Cat tells her that Gabe idolized his father Joseph. Jack comes knocking to introduce himself to the people of Coal Valley, Elizabeth accuses him of inviting himself to another persons home to ask insensitive questions. The next day after school Miss Thatcher tells the students to bring up their slates and chalk then they could leave, Gabe leaves his on the table. Elizabeth follows Gabe in to the woods where she bumps in to Jack, they argue over who should go and talk to Gabe because Jack knows that Gabe stole the plank, they ultimately decide to go together. They find Gabe with the plank clearly upset, when they talk about his father he tells that he took the plank because he didn't trust Mr. Gowen. After talking with Gabe all three of them take the plank to Abigail, she knew it had been Noah's writing all along but she didn't want to cause a rift between her and the other women. Gabe apologizes for taking the plank, Abigail forgives him and hugs him telling him there's one more thing they have to do. Back in the saloon Miss Thatcher is testing their children on their spelling, she walks over to Gabe and sees that he is trying hard. Up above them you can see the plank on the wall. After school Elizabeth is writing a letter to her parents, telling them about teaching in a saloon. Constable Thornton comes in and tells her that she can call him Jack, she tells him he can call her Elizabeth. Once he has gone upstairs she continues her letter saying asking her parents to pass a message along to her younger sibling that she has seen some cowboys and outlaws as well as an 'annoying Mountie'. Quotes "''Perhaps it was hubris or just stubborn pride that set me on my journey west. My first instinct was to refuse the offer of a teaching post in Coal Valley. My education certainly qualified me for the post, but I feared my privileged upbringing might leave me ill-prepared and unequipped to brave the hardships and dangers out west. It was my sister, Julie, who bolstered my resolve because she so doubted my fortitude. She'd tried to frighten me with tales of cowboys, whiskey-runners and outlaws, but it only emboldened my determination to prove to her and my parents that I am Elizabeth Thatcher, a strong, independent, capable woman." ''(Voice over) '' "I can face any obstacle with courage, grace and dignity." ''(Spoken out loud after seeing the stagecoach robbers) - Elizabeth Thatcher, First lines of the series Category:Episodes Category:Season One episodes